Proving imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Johnston said he modeled his Moonlight Madness after the Friday Night Lights meet, which was hosted by The Woodlands last week.

“Friday Night Lights has kind of rejuvenated The Woodlands meet in the sense that more quality athletes and teams are coming to that meet. Hopefully, it will do the same for us,” he said.

The Woodlands girls finished first at the Friday Night Lights’ Varsity A division and second in the Varsity B division.

Sarah Andrews (11:19:27) led the way with a first-place finish in the Varsity A two-mile run. She finished more than a half minute faster than Bree Schrader of Kingwood Park.

Moonlight Madness will have a similar format with 5A schools competing in Division I and schools in 4A or less competing in Division II.

The top local finisher on the boys’ side last week was Tim Givens, of John Cooper, who finished in 13th place in the Varsity A division. But Givens will compete in Division II at Midnight Madness.

“We’ve had a pretty tough week of practice and their legs are pretty shot,” John Cooper assistant coach Scott Holland said. “We are going to run everybody in the B group and hopefully we can have a good meet.”

One coach who is very happy with his team heading into Midnight Madness is Sammy Willis of Conroe High. The Tiger boys finished fourth in the Varsity B division of Friday Night Lights, thanks to top-40 finishes from Ricky Lugo, Nick Nightingale and John Villagomez.

“I feel like we have a great team from top to bottom,” Willis said. “I have 10 good guys to chose from.

“We are looking to the district and regional meets. This meet at Montgomery is going to be a competition among my guys to see who earns a spot on varsity.”

One team not coming to Moonlight Madness is The Woodlands boys. The Highlanders will compete at the Kingwood Park Invitational at 8 a.m. on Saturday.

“It’s nothing against coach Johnston because he puts on a great meet,” TWHS boys coach Dan Green said. “It’s just that when you have a Friday night meet you lose a day of training.

“I like to train my guys for five days and give them the sixth off. But with Friday night meets you cannot do that.”

Every team from District 18-4A will be at Moonlight Madness except for Huntsville.

“It will be a good preview of things to come,” Johnston said. “This meet should tell us where we are at in the early going.”